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One of my 2018 goals is to create a routine of posting journals on here more regularly.Another one of my goals this year is to get back in the habit of meal prepping and cooking real food. (Something I used to be good at but I let the end of 2017 completely wreck me.)

SOOO this journal post is a first attempt at working on both of those goals :)

For
Christmas, my parents gifted me a Crockpot Express Cook, which is
basically a pressure cooker/slow cooker hybrid. It does all kinds of things... slow cooks, pressure cooks, sears, steams, simmers, etc. It. Is. Amazing. And I guess being this excited about receiving a small appliance for Christmas is the true sign of being an adult.

Well,
I've used the pot twice so far and am pretty happy with the results. I
figured why not start sharing my adventures with it?! Now, these two
recipes are admittedly not the healthiest, but they were fun and tasty... and at least they weren't fast food. ALSO, you don't necessarily need
an instant pot for these two particular recipes. They can easily be make with a slow
cooker or good old pots and pans on the stove; you'll just need to adjust the cooking times to whatever tools you are using.

But anyway, here we go!

Black-Eyed Peas

A
good chunk of my extended family is from the South (Mississippi, to be
exact), where it's a New Year tradition to eat black eyed peas for good
luck. Apparently the shape represents the shape of coins, and that is
supposed to bring prosperity and luck. (We also make a
point to eat mandarin oranges or tangerines for the same reason. idk,
it's weird, but I still do it.) Pressure cookers help make awesome
peas/beans, so I wanted to try them out in my new pot. Here's what
I came up with, loosely following the directions on the package of dried
peas I bought.

Makes 6x 1 cup servings1 lb dried black eyed peas

8 cups water (or you could sub vegetable or chicken stock for extra flavor)

2 tbsp olive oil

4 slices bacon

2 cloves garlic, minced

Salt, pepper, any other seasonings to taste

- Pan fry your bacon as you would normally. Doesn't really matter is it gets super crispy or not - you're throwing just them in for flavor.- Once the bacon is done, throw that and the rest of the ingredients into your instant pot.
Seriously, It's that easy. As far as seasonings, I usually just kind of
wing it when I cook. A little of this, a little of that. For this
recipe, I think I added chili powder, paprika, fajita seasoning (a bunch
of peppers, salt and garlic), and comino. I wish I had some bay leaves or something, but I just used what I already had on hand.

- Put the lid on, lock it, and make sure the pressure valve is in the off/sealed position.

- Select the "Bean/Chili" setting on your pot, and cook for 20 minutes.

-
When the cooking cycle has completed, I suggest letting the cooker
release its pressure naturally, which can take up to 20 minutes.
(Alternatively, you can also manually release the pressure by opening
the pressure valve.)

- Pre-heat your pot with the Saute function. When it is heated, pour in your oil and add your chicken to saute for 2-3 minutes (or until it is just golden).

- Add in the
tomato sauce, garlic, sugar and brown sugar, Sriracha, some of
the orange zest, and 1/4 cup of the orange juice (save the other 1/4 cup
for later). Stir and coat all ingredients with the sauce.

-
Put the lid on the pot, lock it, and make sure the pressure valve is
closed/sealed. Select the Poultry option on your pot and let cook for 7
minutes.

- When the 7 minutes are up, turn your pot off and let it naturally release pressure for about 10 minutes.

- Remove the pot lid and turn the Saute function back on.

-
In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with the remaining 1/4 cup of
orange juice until there are no lumps. Slowly pour it into the instant
pot and combine with the sauce.

-
If you're going to add any veggies to the mix, now would be a great
time to, so that they can be coated by the sauce. I added broccoli and
red bell pepper to mine. Just gently stir them into the pot so that you
don't shred your chicken too much.

- Let the sauce cook for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally.

-
If you'd like your sauce thicker, whisk together another batch of
cornstarch and orange juice and slowly stir it in again. You can do this
until you've reached your desired consistency. (I personally ended up
adding 2 more tbsp of cornstarch to thicken.)

- Serve over rice (I used quinoa because that's all I had on-hand), and garnish with green onion and extra orange zest.

So
there you have it; foodies! These were both great for dividing up into
individual servings for meal prep (and no I did not eat these recipes in
the same meal. that doesn't sound very appetizing). Both recipes also
did well in the freezer, so if you made way too much, just freeze the
extra for later.

Do any of y'all have a instant pot? Any cool recipes you want to share? (Bonus points if they are low carb. I could stand a few less carbs in my life.)

so you could make some Cornbread Stuffing Mix as a batter ball to fry up Hush Puppies

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ItsMeMaraFIRST Member Star(s)Indication of membership status - One star is a FIRST member, two stars is Double Gold

2 months ago

My aunt LOVES her pressure cooker she has a big one for the main dish and a small one for rice or side dishes. And now she got an air fryer recently she is in love with that too xD She is all about food and cooking so I love going over to her house for dinner :D

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BeccaFIRST Member Star(s)Indication of membership status - One star is a FIRST member, two stars is Double Gold
RT Torturer

2 months ago

Guuuurl, I love my Instant Pot.

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ChelseaFIRST Member Star(s)Indication of membership status - One star is a FIRST member, two stars is Double Gold
RT Community Manager

2 months ago

My mom just got me one for my bday - I am so excited to try it out!!!

+1 Cool

BeccaFIRST Member Star(s)Indication of membership status - One star is a FIRST member, two stars is Double Gold
RT Torturer

Neat that you can get beans cooked in 20+20 mins, that sounds really handy for making chili... although you'd still end up simmering for flavor another hour or 2. Not sure I see the benefit of pressure cooking cubed chicken breast for orange chicken- just just the cubes smaller and wok them is pretty fast.

I bet you could do some amazing glazed pork spareribs in that thing,

between the Pressure speed,

then sear for nice surface texture,

and finish with the glaze

(oooh, apricot jam looks like a good bet, maybe with some jalapeno puree mixed in)